Jul 16, 2014

The term Ultrabook may only be used to describe entertainment-minded, super-thin mobile personal computers, but there are other types of laptops that are just as thin, or close enough that the difference is negligible. The WS60 2OJ from Micro-Star International is such an example.

In truth, the Origin EVO15-S gaming notebook is an example as well, but that one is still an entertainment-minded device, if on a level far higher than mere web surfing and film playback. MSI's newest laptop stands out even more because it is not made for consumer entertainment, although one could still use it to run films, games and pretty much anything else. Basically, the MSI WS60 2OJ is a mobile workstation, a professional laptop in other words, that even the most demanding video/virtual designers should find sufficient, if not excellent, for their needs. After all, between the Intel Core i7 quad-core central processing unit (Core i7-4710HQ, 2.5 GHz clock) and the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M graphics card (2GB GDDR5), CAD/CAM programs will run smoothly, much to the joy of M&E (Multimedia & Entertainment) designers, as well as engineers. The diagonal of the MSI WS60 2OJ is 15.6 inches, which is another point scored in the “ultrabook” trait list.

It's actually surprising that MSI didn't use a discrete graphics card with more VRAM, but we suppose space still set some limits as to how many heat-generating parts could fit before the cooling stopped keeping up. After all, while MSI did implement the Cooler Boost 2 technology, the dual-fan thermal cooling can only do so much before even its efficiency proves not enough to offset the heat waves. Moving on, storage is provided by an HDD of 1 TB and two solid state drives of varying capacity. The top transfer speed, for reading and writing files, is of 1,000 MB/s because of the SuperRAID technology that “merges” the two SSDs into a single whole, as far as the operating system is concerned.

Furthermore, the newcomer uses Thunderbolt 2 technology with bi-directional 10 Gbps speed, plus USB 3.0, which, while 4 times slower, is still essential and much more widespread. Combined, the interfaces let you transfer 10 HD videos in 3 minutes to and from an external storage device (though it depends on the flash drive, HDD, SSD or whatever else). Finally, the 15.6-inch LCD is a 2880 x 1620 IPS panel and can be extended to two other monitors if you have them. This is good for multi-tasking (one window per screen). All in all, the MSI WS60 2OJ notebook weighs 1.9 kg / 4.18 pounds and is 19.9 mm thin / 0.78 inches.